At present, there are two major unknowns. On the one hand, there is the virus’s ultimate scope, for which we will sooner or later find a solution. All indications suggest that the long-awaited vaccine is getting closer and closer. On the other hand, we do not know the extent of its consequences for our economy and way of life.
From a public health perspective, we are learning to live with the pandemic responsibly, with social distancing and face masks in our day-to-day lives, among other measures. From an economic perspective, we will also have to uphold the principles that have delivered such good results so far: immediacy, decisiveness, and perseverance in the strategy to be followed.
The health crisis has brought to the fore existing positive trends such as the digitalisation of society, but it has also exacerbated structural social and economic problems. It is time to redouble efforts to steer the former and correct the latter, so that the current economic recovery takes root, strengthens, and becomes sustainable.
It is necessary to put forward a clear growth strategy, focused in the short term on recovering the jobs lost, based on an in-depth analysis of the crisis and the starting situation. Its implementation must be coordinated among economic stakeholders and at the international level, in order to continue what has been developed since the start of the pandemic with such good results.
The banking sector is prepared and willing to make a meaningful contribution to the development of the strategy adopted, as banks have demonstrated in recent months with their initiatives to mitigate the pandemic’s economic effects on families and businesses.
The fight against the pandemic and its devastation requires all stakeholders to persevere in working together. We have the opportunity to drive the economic recovery on the foundations of a new, more sustainable and equitable productive model. Let us not waste the opportunities for improvement that crises offer, however terrible they may be.
José Luis Martínez Campuzano, Spokesperson for the Spanish Banking Association
